Brentford defender Yoann Barbet believes that confidence is high in the group at Griffin Park after an unbeaten start to pre-season thus far.

Dean Smith’s group have won two and drawn two of their four pre-season games, the latest of them being a 2-2 stalemate against Premier League side Southampton on Saturday at Griffin Park. Ahead of the new campaign, Yoann is pleased with how the squad is shaping up at Griffin Park and feels The Bees will be ready to go when the season gets underway against Sheffield United in 11 days time.

“We haven’t lost any of our friendly games yet which is good for our confidence,” said Yoann, speaking to iFollow Brentford on Monday. “We played really well against Southampton in the first-half, the second-half was a bit harder and we gave a really poor goal away. It is good for us to draw against a top Premier League team. It was a little bit like we were last season where we were really good in the first-half but then started sloppy in the second. We can be much better with the new signings that we have. It is also pre-season, so it is hard physically playing a game every three days. We will be ready to start the season next Saturday and be fresh to keep the rhythm in the second-half that we had in the first.”

The Bees’ squad has been bolstered this summer with the additions of Luke Daniels, Ollie Watkins, Kamo Mokotjo, Henrik Dalsgaard, and Neal Maupay. The new faces mean that Dean Smith now has competition in every position throughout the starting XI which Yoann thinks can only be a good thing.

“We have two players in every position and, if we want to go as high as we want to be, then it is good to have those quality players in the group,” said Yoann. “I think they will settle in quickly because sometimes when you see them in training it feels like they have been here for a few years. They have got involved in the team really quickly and everyone here has helped them settle in. We have new French players so it is easy for him to talk to me and Maxime Colin. The other lads are all English or Danish so they have Lasse Vibe and Andreas Bjelland to talk to. I think it has been easy for them to come into the team and you can see some cohesion on the pitch already.”

Yoann made 25 appearances last season as Brentford finished tenth in the Sky Bet Championship. Dean Smith’s side were the fourth top scorers in the league but also conceded more goals than three of the league’s bottom six, something which Yoann said has to improve.

“For the team we need to concede less goals because we scored a lot of goals last season but conceded a lot as well,” admitted Yoann. “If we can score the same number of goals and concede less then we can go higher in the league, which is what we want to do. We also conceded a lot of goals from set-pieces so that is something we want to get better at. For me, it is about playing more games because I felt that every time I played last season, I played well. I want to have a full season in the line-up.”